Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/542

 HODGE

HODGEN

with a diagnosis of hepatic disease. The usual treatment, including a course of mercury, left her worse. The resident physician on making an examination found decided retroversion of the uterus. Hodge introduced one of the then new Dewees pessaries and to his astonish- ment the liver complaint was cured and the woman speedily restored to health. Sitting one evening in the university "his eyes rested on the upright steel support designed to hold the shovel and tongs which were kept in position by a steel hook and as he studied its supporting curve the longed-for illumination came and the lever pessary was the result." Afterwards he perfected his discovery by giving the instrument its double curve and making it closed. He also modified the eclectic forceps and Baudelocque's cephalotribe and his craniotomy scissors. Some thirty years' experience of hospital and private practice made his book on "Diseases Peculiar to Women" (1860) particularly valuable. On the resigna- tion of his professorship, he devoted him- self to his great work, "Principles and Practice of Obstetrics" (1S64), which he dedicated to the memory of James and Dewees and which fulfilled its promise of being "in opposition to the most ad- mired authors." From its philosophical character as well as its original teach- ings and illustrations it ranked among the first of its kind both in America and abroad.

He was led to resign his professorship on account of failing eyesight, a weak- ness in the optic nerve which could not be relieved by surgical skill. At last he was unable to read and write, but his will was indomitable. For his great obstetrical work he had to rely on an amanuensis and such help as his medical confreres gladly rendered. Sixty-seven years old, yet with perfect faculties, he did all the pro- fessional work which could be done with- out eyes, and the poor, the hard-up people, the students could still count upon find- ing him in serene mind, tender and sym- pathetic and with loyal unswerving trust in God. He generously at this time pre-

sented the college with his valuable museum together with his collection of material used in making the one hundred and fifty-nine illustrations in his book It is kept separate and under the cura- torship of the professor of obstetrics.

The day before his last illness he seem- ed in his usual health and was working till late afternoon with professional en- gagements and preparing an article on " Cephalotripsy." He went to bed per- fectly well but near midnight was seized with nausea, faintness and heart failure and died twenty-six hours later, on Feb- ruary 26, 1873.

Among his interesting ai-ticles and books were:

" Aneurysm." (" American Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine and Surgery.")

"Puerperal Fever in the Pennsylvania Hospital," 1883.

"Pathology and Therapeutics of Chol- era Maligna," 1833.

"Diseases Peculiar to Women," 1860.

"The Principles and Practice of Ob- stetrics," 1864.

"Feticide," 1869.

" Memoirs on Prof. Dewees and on Prof. James," and two articles on "Syn- clitism of the Fetal Head," 1870-1.

He was a fellow of the College of Phy- sicians, Philadelphia; professor of ob- stetrics, University of Pennsylvania; emeritus professor in 1S63; LL. D., New Jersey; lecturer on the principles of surgery in the Philadelphia Medical Institute.

D. W.

Hist, of the Penna. Hospital. Norton and Woodbury, 1895.

Standard Hist, of the Med. Profession in Phila. F. P. Henry, 1807.

Hodgen, John Thompson (1826-1882).

John Thompson Hodgen, surgeon, was born at Hodgenville, La Rue County, Kentucky, on the nineteenth of January, 1826. His father was Jacob Hodgen; his mother, Frances Park Brown.

His early years were spent in the com- mon schools of Pittsfield, Pike County, Illinois, and his collegiate course at Beth-